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Show aHiffl ' The BrUtaI Murcfer of LittIe Susk Martin a Cfime That Was Never SolvedWho Was the Pretty sadli ' H SKlLf 'I V ' 'Fine Looking Woman Found Dead Under a Tree at Hempstead, Long Island? " 'V ' H 'iif"'" ''BaBlBwBKti II II iBIBIBIBl 1 mK ' I9HH IMtt l (CopjrlKht. 1012. bj th NcTrlork iu.ra!d Co. AH Weal. !! D TTTIrE Johunlc and Carter Smith- crs were biding from Ned Wilson. I wh& u'as Jlaying "it" in a game of "hide-and-seek" ou the Switkors ' j farn at Hempstead, Long Island, i. Ned buried his face in his hands against the side of the barn so that he : could not peek at whore the other boys ran to. There was a big oak tree a hundred hun-dred yards from the bnrn, and as the boys were playing with "water bounds" this I 1 tree was a legitimate place to hide. Down the knoll in back of the stables they I scampered, through a little pigeon grove, 1.1 and round the trunk of the great tree to J I pull themselves up by the lowest limb. So intent were they in the game that they did not notice a big picture hat lying I on the ground near their "bunk," but as thT rounded the oak they came abruptly on the figure of a woman leaning comfortably com-fortably back against the tree. She was just in a position to prevent them swinging swing-ing up to the branch, and they were about to run in search of some other hiding hid-ing placo when something in the appcar- : ancc of the woman impelled them to steal closer and look at her. ' "Sho's asleep," whispered Johnnie. ''She looks awful scarey like," 6ald r Carter in an awed tone. The two boys huddled close- together and crept toward tho htrangc woman. There was sonic- : tiling about her which they could not cx- ; plain afterward, but which frightened them. In her lap lay a leather chate laine bag with silver mountings. The I feather of her picture hat on the ground ; danced merrily in the breeze. She was ; very pale, and her prettily shaped head, with an abundance of auburn tinted hair, was bent far forward. Ned Wilson, meanwhile, had counted K five hundred by fives and was looking for I the other boys. Suddenly he heard a : startled, terrible scream, and John and ) , Carter burst upon him, running pell mcll for the house. , i "She's dead ! She's dead I" they were Fcrceching. i The Terrible Discovery. ' : Ned did not know who was dead, but he. too, ran for the house, whero Mr. r Smilhers pacified the boys and called a 1 hired man, who returned to the old oak 'i tree with her- Tho woman, dressed all in black, was dead. The Coroner was ' f !; sent for, and he and the Sheriff exaru- ', lucd tho body. i' Close by her side was a bottle which i the boys had not noticed. It was rightly ! corked, aud in the oottom were a few ; drops of carbolic acid. In the chatelaino . ! has they found a rosary, thrco printed ' i leaflets bearing tho v0rd9 of conventional ' Catholic prayers, and a short unsigned : note, which read: (, "Dear Mother and Father Please for- J give me for tuking my life. Its only t raluo is the affection you bear for it, 10 if you will forgve mo I am 6uro it Bsvill be all right, I pray that God may forgive me, too, and I think Ho wilJ. Yon know the terrible reasons for thl lct-" It seemed to be a clear caso of buicide, t, The only question which the Coroner thought he would have to solve was the 1 Identity of tho young woman. But in : moving the body, its beautiful reddish hair, which was low over the brow, fell backward and revealed, straight across ' the forehead uboye the left eye, a deep, ' clean cut. This led to a closer esatnina- ; tion, and Dr. Archer B. Wallace, the ! ' Coroner, found a wicked looking wolt i across the right car. Even eo, the theory of suicide was not entirely disproved. If murder had been committed thero were no sign6 of the usual struggle. Tho crass about the Iree was untrampled, and the minutest examination failed to disclose footprints fy other than those of the girl. The fact ' that there were no stains on the girl's facts or on her clothing seemed to indi- ;f cato that the wound en the forehead hud I been received cither after death or when IB ' 'irculation was. bo nearly at a standstill ;i Wat Uf0 was poetically extinct. , Tho cursory examination of tho wounds which was possible on the fipot did not even indicate that they might not have been received some time Lefore death and' healedLto some extent before the suicide. The Coroner was still of the opinion that the young woman, who was evidently a person of means and position, had taken her owu life. Her clothing, every article of which was of expensive material ma-terial and such quality as would bo woln only by a woman of refinement and excellent ex-cellent taste, was carefully searched. Every mark of the maker or of a laundry laun-dry had been carefully cut out. The) shoes, which were of extremely fine quality, qual-ity, were almost now. .but the name of the manufacturer had been scraped from the arch of the sole with &ome keen edged instrument or a piece of glass. The whole affair was baffling, but the police were confident that as soon as the girl wns missed by her family and friends and the matter was given publicity her Identity would be learned. At tho post-morten examination the case was given a new twist The Coroner Coro-ner was surprised to learn that the wound in the temple was sufllcient to cause death. Some person must havo treated it after it had been inflicted, for the girl herself would have been unable to do fio. With this wound it would have been impossible for her to go alone to the tree in the fields, some distance from a highway, swallow (he carbolic acid and replace the cork fn the bottle. The amount of acid which she was shown to have taken would have meant almost instant death alone. Here were two causes of death, either one of which would have worked almost instantaneously, instantane-ously, and it did not seem possible that either one of them could have been self-inflicted self-inflicted after the other had been received. re-ceived. Those investigating the case were confronted by the questions: Which had been first, the acid or the bullet? Was it sulcid.- or murder? Who was the itylishly dressed, handsome woman? It was not until tho day following the finding of the body that a fountain pen was found in a clump of weeds near the oak tree. The pen was an expensive one and was marked with ihc initials "0. M.," engraved on a gold band which circled the cap. It was the only clow which could servo to identify the woman or any other person connected with tho crime. The police of the counto were questioned as to the disappearance of auy woman whose initials were 0. M., but with no result. Suspicions Aroused. When all was at, a etandbtlll came a sensational development in tho c.iio. Coroner Wallace received a letter posted from Iloboken. Il was not signed, but the writer averred that ho wa& a friend of the dead girl He was acquainted with the reaouj for her death, he wrote, and ho was acting in the iutcrcsth of the girl's family, who were satisfied, for certain reasons, to have her drop out of bight without any publicity. Tho writer of tho anonymous letter begged tho authorities not, to push tho inquiries as to who the suicldo was, and assured the Coroner that such a proceeding would be uselefcs, as the family was ready to spend any amount of money to keep their secret. Nevertheless tho Coroner and others Interested redoubled their efforts to explain ex-plain the crime. The fountain pen was the ouly tnngiblc clew thoy had, for all attempts to traco the origin of tho letter failed. F.rom the manufacturers of the pen, whose firm name was learned fromi the instrument itself, tho investigators obtained a list of tho agents in New York and Brooklyn who sold that particular par-ticular make of pen. It was almost an endless tusk to canvass all these Moras In search of one which ha- sold tho pen In question, marking 1t O. M. It was quite possible that the store which bold Ihopeu had not engravti it, which would add to trie difficulty of dcvelbpilig tho clew. Whllo this-'lnvestigatlon -was in pr6g- I n3 Dr: Denton, a friend of the Coroner, received another letter bonring on the case. It seemed to be in a different handwriting from the firt lotlt-r. Enclosed En-closed was a crisp one hundred dollar bill to cowr the funeral expends for the dead girl. Tho' writer requested that fllio be decently buried under the nnme of Martha Mar-tha Lainrbeer. There Eccmed lo be no use In longer holding the body, fio the girl was buried as Martha Laimbeer. Death had occurred oc-curred April M. 3004. It was four months later that Dr. Wallace learned that a few days before the discovery of the tragedy in Tlompstebri Margaret Lynch, n Brooklyn j;irl, bad disappeared. The Initials nrc thi- snme as for Martha Luimbeer, and the authorities wrote to the Lynch family explaining the clrcum- ' T 1 , "Who Is. Oswrfld Muine?" : Mrs. Lynch broke dotvitff and afterward told a strange Awry of her daughters relations re-lations with theMauno famiJy. At the 6econd coroner's Inquest, which was held after th'c identification of tho body, sho and her daughter testified that Margaret Lynch had beon engaged to marry Oswald Os-wald Maunv, Jr. Two days beforu the marriage was to havo taken place her fiance went suddenly and violr-ntly Insane. Margaret's norves wrre shattered under ihi shock, and it was feano that she would not recover. The Mauno family fore extrcmt-ly fond of her. and with them she went to the Woodclcft Inn, at Frcvport, Long Ibland, to spend the summer! ' She seonied to be happiest when she wa.? with some member mem-ber of the Muticc fumily, who wt re dear to stances of the finding of the girl's body and describing her. Mr. and Mrs. Lynch went to Hemp-1 Hemp-1 stead. They at first scouted the idea that the dead woman could be their daughter, but finally consented to view the body for identification. It was exhumed, nnd after exhibiting considerable doubt Mr. and Mrs. Lynch baid that it was Margaret. Mar-garet. They acted rather strangely, but not more so than would be expected under the shocking circumstances. They could not explain the girl's death, but seemed to take for granted that it was suicide. Now, during this timo It had been learned from a department storo in Biooklyn that the fountain pen had been purchased by a daughter of Oswald Maune. head of a Brooklyn printing firm, and that it had been delivered at the Maune residence in his name at Christmas, Christ-mas, 11K)3. This information was furnished fur-nished to Coroner W&Ilace, and he bluntly asked Mrs. Lynch: her fiancC. Oswald Maune, the father, was particularly kind to her, and she spent much of her time in his company alone, nis attitude toward her always seemed to be that of a father to a daughter, and he was not more affectionate and kind to his own girl than he was to Margaret Lynch. For a time Mnrgarct recuperated and seemed to be gaining streugth Then ahc became moody, melancholy, and appeared1 to bo continually brooding over something.! Her eyes took on a hunted look, and. she would glance furtively about nt tho slightest sound. Something seemed to lxl preying on hor mind. She returned home that autumn with her hair streaked with Cray and tho innnner of a hunted animal What was haunting her? That question has not been anbwered, but if the testimony testi-mony at the coroner's inquest was true the police allege that Oswald Mauno had a motive to be rid of Margaret Lynch According to her mother, she wrote to her a few days before her disappearance, telling of tho,sin she had been betrayed into committing and baying that she would go to an inbtitution. At a hospital she wns received as Margaret Lawrence, but after a few days bhe left the institution, institu-tion, saying that sho was going to friends. The hand of guilt pointed directly at one man, and the polico net began to close about him. Although to the casual observer they did not appear nimllar, handwriting experts testified that the writing of the mite found in the chatc-lalnd chatc-lalnd bag and the two letters received by Dr. Wallace and Dr, Denton was the the fame. Specimens of tho handwriting of the suspected man were obtained and an nttraipi was made to show that the same hand had written the thrco notes. Experts disagreed on this point. In the midst of the pioccedings Coroner "She's Asleep," Whispered Johnnie. Wallace caused a sensation by swearing that Margaret Lynch had been seen alive after the body of the woman had been found under the onk tree. .Mrs. Lynch stuck to the statement that the dead girl was her daughter, but the time which elapsed between the death and the identification iden-tification made u mistake quite possible. It ia not uncommon for the nearest relatives rela-tives to mako such mistakes under circumstances cir-cumstances bo trying, and it could not be positivel. proved that Margaret Lynch wns the girl whose bod had been found in Hempstead. , The fountain pen was a bit of evidence winch tended to show th?.t It wnp Mar-'garct Mar-'garct Lynch, but, even so, tbr investl-l 'gators were at a los; to determine whether Oswald Maune had been on the spot and dropped the pen himself or Whether he had nt one timo given it to Miss Lynch. It wns even possible that the girl wns not Margaret Lynch, and that the pen with the initials "0. M." was only a strange coincidence, a freak of circumstances. It was supposed that murder had been committed aud that th body had been! enrried to the oak tree and left there with artificial evidenccj of suicide. There are many questions etill unanswered un-answered regarding the. mysterious tragedy trag-edy in Hempstead. Who was the pretty, extremely refined ldoking girl found dead under the oak tree? Whose was the fountain pen found at her side? If it was Oswald Mauno's, how did it come there? Who wrote tho notes from Ho-boken? Ho-boken? Is Margaret Lynch still alhro? SUSIE MARTIN CASE. ON March 0, 3804, there -wore posted in tho polico stntions of New York city bulletins which read; "Look for Susie Martin, eleven years old, nipdlum build, slim ; dark complexion, bnir and eye; bln striped calico dress, brown cloth coat with yoiio stripws an,d trimmed with fur; blu cloth skirt; blue cloth girl's cap; black stockings: buttoned shoes." Susie was well known to most of the policemen in the precinct in which she lived and was a great favorite with them, so that her disappearance caused an extraordinarily ex-traordinarily thorough search. Each night ns the men gathered at the police station when they were relieved they would ask oue another: "Have you seen Susie:" The answer was hlwnys "No." About two weeks after the mysterious vanishing of thi- littlp Martin cirl two old women discovered a heap of rags nnd som... bonts in a cellar in the basement of No. 517 West Thirty-ninth street whil they woro hunting for kindling wood. Under tho rags and bones they found what seemed to b a portion of a human torao. Frightened, they sent for a policeman, police-man, who carried the ghastly fiud to the West Forty-seventh street station. Fear that Susie Martin had at last been found I proved true when a distracted mother identified the ra?3 and two or three trinkets trin-kets as belonging to the lo3t fir!. It seemed that on the evening of her disappearance dis-appearance Susie, who cared for her youngtr brother aud sister while her mother was away during the daytime, had asked if ebo might remain in the street an extra half hour to play with the children Her mother had given her consent, but at the end of the half hour, Susie could I not be found. A thorough eearch of th cellar resulted in the finding of the groaterl part of the girl's body with the exception of the 6kull nnd the lower part of ht 'limbs. Careful examination of the body by medical experts failed to revai any sign of motive for the crime. It wa positively shown that whoever had killed Su3ie Martin had not been actuated by tho motive common in tho murder of children. Tho terribly mutilated condition of tb body seemed to 'be merely an attempt to better hldo It, It had oven been boiled, and there were marks on tho bones which had evidently been made by a saw. Scientific Scien-tific measurements of thewo marks werel taken to determine the width of the blade 01 too saw ana toe aiaium.o wiwetn uio teeth. This was the only clew which the investigators had to work on. Tho only clrcumslauco of the murder itself which was furnished to thorn was that it had not taken placo in tho cellar where the body was found. Analysis of the stains on the floor, wall aud pieces of wood In tho cellar establiahed this facL The lack of motive for the crime was baffling. The lengths to which the murderer bad Rone to conceal his act seemed to indicate thnt ho was overwhelmingly terrified at what ho had done, and it was generally conceded that perhaps he had Intended to kidnap the girl. Sho had probably strug-ded strug-ded and had received injuries resulting in denth. But then the question rose as to why any person should wish to kidnap Susie Martin. Her mother was not poverty pov-erty stricken, neither did she havo any con aiderablo sum of money, though it was rumored abont tho neighborhood that the! Martins wero hoarding what money I V ' : r - . M thoy made ja order to Hticate Susie "aa H J6me day ia send her to college.. H Along those lines it was neighborhood H i'ossfp that Susie had wealthy relatives. IH and -tbatoMo day he w,H come rnt6 a H raforteble fortune. It waa became -0f jH . Pop!e eaid, t&at'lwr mother wanted ! H Suslo to bo well e4a4ed. Thesa etofies ,H wero never riioirn to bo true, nor were H they disproved. j Thonma Byrnes, then Ohksf of th D. j B tctv Bnrcau, aa& trmner of bra men H worked untirintfr on d eaee. JL polico , H drngnt wajr aprcad, -which esoompassed l H tho stablo yard of a bnmtary when ' H notorious hand Ioofd and an Abattoir ' I H vcbro it was thought fire body aufct lay iH becqbofjod. Sorer! members of tie b4d H wore arreatnd, bat all pxercd.aHbis -whidSt luH wore indisputable. A man Who bwi dl's- laH appeared A, day or two boforo Susie Martta jH did was bunted down, but' it from afen M that he had been a tfaeanger in A seees H class trajn'eu route fortoj Pacific eoaet liH on the very day in tfaich tie firl waa last. , 'jl Every load of ashes which was carried 'jaal away from, tie brewery -wis thorooihly 'jl searched for the weapon with which tfarfa 'jH had been killed, or for any portions of be 'laal body. It was labor lost. The eearch wsa il practically given up as hopeless. iaLL Just one day less than a year after the Lal murder of Susie Martin, was discovered ' a janitor found n cumber of bones in the (H cellar of No. 459 West Forty-oixth street ! Ho had long si'nco forgotten the case of HbbI the little girl who had been so mysteriously jH B..UVU, oui roe pones excited ojs suBpraa bbH that some crime must have boca commit- ILLv ted on the premises. .He tamed then over jH to the police, who submitted them to Dr. 'HH Cyrus Edson and Dr. Frank Ferguien, 'Ll who declared al! but one small fragment to 'taLI be tbo bones of lower animals. Tho oae jH piece which seemed to be from a human 'LH body was compared with the bone known H to be Susie Martin's, and ft was found that H a nick from a saw blade in the new frag- ment was exactly similar to tbo nicks ia H the murdered girl's bones. The width ol H the saw blade was evidently three rallli- 'ILaH metres and tho teeth were the eamc dis jH lance apart in both cases, as nearly as JH could bo determined. IH Balked by Death. 'H . The police searched the cellar and found jH a skull which seamed to be that of a girl jLLLv about Susie Martin's age. Tho family had jH been broken up and greatly scattered, but ! Mra. Martin was brought to Nw York 'ibI from a small town in New Jersey and ILLH identified the skull as that of her daughtec l -- dentist who had done work for tho gir) lLH recognized certain gold fillings which h Lbbv had put in. Other clows made it certain ILH to the police that the murder had taken i place in the cellar where the fckall was IliH found. The investigators hid a fresh start ll and the smirch for the man who had com- ILB I rait ted tho crime was renewed and pushed iLB relentlessly. Slowly, but it seemed eer- toinly, circumstantial evidence pointed to Frits Bossmger, who had been janitor of jH tho building in West Forty-sixth street H when Susie Martin disappeared, as a nun who could throw light on the crime. He H had been a butcher but had made a little H money and had given up active bunem. H Friends said that because he did sot wish to be idle he had taken the posdtlos IH of janitor in tho apartment building where be lived, though he did not do the very hcaTy work, paying a younger man a small H vum to help him with the furnace and the , IH as-hs. IH Bessinger bad some sort of a cooking IH paraphernalia in the cellar, it was eald, H and th neighbors who remembered him H were under the impression that be boiled H meat and made sausages there. When be H left the Forty-sixth street bouse he tent away by express a Targe cauldron, oval in shape and about two and a half feet H long. From what the police could learn, if Be&jngcr had killed Susie Martin it mart have been because of some ulterior motive, for his life and actions teemed to bare I H been exemplary. It was generally eup- 1 H posod that the crime bad been committed ' by cone ether person in Frito Beaainrer'e H cellar, that he had known of it, or learned H of it later, and that fear bad sealed his jH Ho had moved nbordy after Susie's dis- BiaiBiBifl 1B1B1B1BH lappear&Doe, and It was learned that since H J that time he and his wife nnd three chii- dren bad not remained in any one bulldine for more than a few months. His nature teemed to have changed. He had bad lit- H tlo to do with his neighbors, although pre- H viously he had been considered Jovial and H a good companion- It was evident that ,H eomethim; was preying upon him. Vet h seemed to be living happily with his fair- Uy, and his children were healthy, clean cut, lovable boys aud girls. All this was learned from those who ' bad been temporary neighbors of Beeaanrer ' H while the police wore tracing bis move- From one woman they learned that be uud his family had moved Just three weeks H preripuily and tho new address was fur- H nitfhed to the police. They went there - j and found crepe on the door. Fritz Bes- H singer was dead, and with him was buried " jH the last hopo of nolving the mystery ,0,. ' jH Susie Martin's death. , ,. H |